It's 3 a.m., and my mind is moving at hyperspeed. Plagued by the same thoughts, at this same inconvenient time: Where is my life going? Am I using these precious seconds, minutes, days right? How am I giving back to the world? AM. I. ADEQUATE?

A tragedy like this brings us face-to-face with our existential vulnerabilities -- vulnerabilities to harm, death, and loss -- and the existential vulnerability of all those we love and, perhaps worst of all, the limitedness or our ability to protect them.

In the aftermath of the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, there are two differing ways in which human beings can react to feelings of unspeakable horror and powerlessness in the face of the slaughtering of innocent little children.

Is there an alternative to ideological illusion and the rhetoric of evil? Yes, there is. We must remember our common human vulnerabilities and bring them into a collective conversation within which our existential anxiety can be held and better borne.